The "Underside" of the Mexican Revolution: El Paso, 1912*

The Mexican Revolution was predominantly a Northern movement. In part this was a logical continuation of what had occurred during the Diaz regime, namely, the rapid development of the northern tier of Mexican states. But in large measure the rise to prominence of leaders such as Francisco Madero, Pascual Orozco, Francisco Villa, Venustiano Carranza, Alvaro Obregón, and Pablo González reflected the advantage they enjoyed over revolutionaries in other parts of Mexico—access to the American border. Arms and ammunition could be imported, loot to pay for these munitions could be exported, United States territory could be used as a base of operations, and the United States provided a sanctuary for the members of defeated factions. Moreover, since the majority of the population along the border were of Mexican extraction, they inevitably became caught up in the factional struggle, as, for that matter, did many of the Anglos, either out of sympathy or because the Revolution became a lucrative business. Yet despite the extent to which the Revolution spilled over into the United States, we still have but a sketchy knowledge of this phenomenon. Precisely how did Mexican juntas function, how were munitions acquired, how was recruiting conducted, and how was revolutionary activity financed? To understand this critical aspect of the Revolution we need much more work along the lines of David N. Johnson's admirable study of Maderista activities in San Antonio in 1910-1911.¹

There is a wide range of primary materials available in the United States, much of it barely utilized, for investigating the Revolution on the border. By far the most important new source is the archive of the Bureau of Investigation.² Until recently, researchers were limited to using those Bureau reports included in the State Department records of Mexican affairs. But the Bureau's massive files for the decade 1910-1920 have now been declassified, and these 80,000-odd pages of documents are available on twenty-four reels of microfilm. It should be noted, however, that this material is organized in a roughly chronological but haphazard manner. Information on a particular topic is almost always scattered through the reels, and in some cases individual pages of a single report are randomly distributed in several reels.

Second only to the Bureau of Investigation files in terms of documentary evidence are the case files of the United States Commissioners and United States District Courts for the border states of Texas, New Mexico, California and Arizona. There are more than seven hundred cases dealing principally with violations of the neutrality statutes available in three Federal Records Centers: Fort Worth, Texas, Laguna Nigel, California, and Denver, Colorado. These cases comprise tens of thousands of pages of documents with extensive testimony and exhibits and are an indispensable body of material. Because many of the conspiracies interlace the entire border region and because of changes of venue, it is often necessary on a specific subject to obtain case files from all three of the Records Centers.³

Utilizing sources such as these, this article undertakes to illustrate what may be termed the "underside" of the Revolution. The case of El Paso in 1912 was selected because during the Orozco rebellion this most important of United States border cities existed in an atmosphere of intrigue suggestive of West Berlin at the height of the Cold War, with more than its share of agents, double and triple agents, mercenaries, gunrunners, and propagandists. Instead of dealing with the Orozco rebellion itself, which has received scholarly treatment by Michael C. Meyer,⁴ the focus will be on the secret war raging in El Paso in connection with the rebellion, that is, on the activities of Mexican factions and United States citizens and governmental agencies involved in the munitions traffic, in intelligence, and in recruiting and filibustering.

El Paso had a long history of intrigue, being at various times the headquarters for exiles, secret agents, and gunrunners. In 1865, for instance, the city was a transit point for Juarista spies and gunrunners operating against the French.⁵ Three...